Every evening on my way to Sydney Dance Company classes, I drive past an intriguing black and white mural of a woman’s face, on George Street near Sydney’s Circular Quay, sitting above the words, Love Shouldn’t Hurt. It’s hard not to notice. It’s huge and textured. I wanted to know what it was for. Now I do. This is its story. Thank you to Ogilvy PR and Julie Nestor, vice president, consumer marketing at American Express, for answering my questions.

The mural is part of a campaign by Ogilvy PR and American Express to highlight domestic violence. The campaign aims to build awareness and encourage partners to join in the fight.

The 6m x 10m mosaic mural is made from 20,000 jar lids. The face is that of a domestic violence survivor, Felicity Cook. She represents the one Australian woman murdered every week by a current or former partner and the thousands seeking refuge in women’s shelters and safe houses across the country.

The campaign supports Two Good, an organisation founded by Rob Caslick, whose business model operates on a “buy one, give one: model to produce beautiful, chef-designed meals for women in need. The meals are specially packaged in custom jars, to remind receivers that they are valued and cared for.

For every Two Good meal placed on Deliveroo and paid for with an American Express card, a Two Good meal would be donated to a women’s safe house in Sydney or Melbourne. Participants were also invited to join the conversation by using the hashtag #deliveringgood.

The mural, created by Sydney-based artist, Noula Diamantopoulos, and hosted by Lendlease, is representative of the volume of meals donated by American Express to Two Good via Deliveroo. generously hosted by Lendlease).

The Stable: How and why did Amex become involved in the project? Why is it important for Amex to stand up for domestic violence?

Julie Nestor, American Express: It’s devastating the number of women who are affected by domestic violence. Every week an Australian woman is murdered by a current or former partner and thousands more are seeking refuge in women’s shelters and safe houses across the country. This is something that we can’t ignore.

The work of Two Good aligns with the values of American Express, to provide support in the communities we do business in. When I met Rob Caslick, the founder of Two Good, I was deeply inspired, and I knew with our existing partnership with Deliveroo that we could help Two Good do more. And we certainly did! During October, we reached our goal to provide 20,000 Two Good meals to women in need.

Ogilvy PR also produced the social content that drove the campaign. It highlighted the survivor’s story, as well as the work of renowned chefs, Kylie Kwong and Christine Manfield, who donate recipes for Two Good. The content was first launched on American Express’ owned channels.

The campaign has already achieved even more than its creators hoped for:

More than 175 pieces of traditional media coverage for a reach of over 48.5 million

99% positive social sentiment

Facebook, Instagram and media coverage in October successfully led to increased transactions by both local and international American Express card members, which meant we reached our 20,000 meal donation target

To date, over 345,000 video content views on social with over 1.4m impressions

The Stable: Has the project triggered change or awareness within Amex’s own culture?

Julie Nestor, American Express: The project has certainly raised awareness, and started conversations about the issue, across our organisation. Unfortunately, domestic violence touches so many people, and by launching this partnership we’ve had colleagues, friends and family talking more openly about it.

We also want to ensure that we aren’t engaging in this as a one-off campaign, and instead, American Express will continue to support Two Good’s work through a long-standing partnership.

The Stable:Where did the idea for the mural come from?

Ogilvy PR: As part of its commitment to support local communities, American Express Australia established a new meaningful partnership with Two Good, to fulfil an ambitious goal of providing 20,000 meals for women in need – a goal that would drive real impact. To do that we wanted to put a face to the campaign and use a real story of survival and empowerment – to make that human connection there was a real person behind these awful statistics, and by supporting the campaign you can help a person like Felicity Cook.

Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty Images for American Express

The Stable: What were some of the challenges in creating and producing the mural?

Ogilvy PR: We were fortunate to engage experienced mosaic artist and founding director of the Mosaic Association of Australia and New Zealand, Noula Diamantopoulos. Noula understood the logistics in tackling the production of a 6m x 10m mural in less than four weeks. Staying true to the creative idea, we created the mural out of 20,000 Two Good jar lids, with each lid representing a meal that would be donated. The size, scale and volume of the piece, in addition to tight timeframes to produce and install the artwork in a public space, added complexity to the task. However, Noula did an incredible job creating a work that was true to our face of the campaign, Felicity Cook.

The Stable: What does it mean to Ogilvy PR to be involved in a project that supports women and helps to conquer domestic violence?

Ogilvy PR: Ogilvy PR prides itself on brave ideas that make a difference. So it was an honour to be involved in a campaign that shone a light on an important social issue and work with a client who pushed the creative boundaries. With one Australian woman murdered each week by a current or former partner, which is a shocking and unacceptable statistic, everyone in the team felt compelled to make this a huge success, and is why we felt so privileged to be involved in a piece of work that has generated a positive and ongoing conversation around an important issue.